John's Blog

If you are into images of the grand landscape you have likely seen images of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, UT. It would be pretty easy to walk by this during the day and never give it a second thought but at sunrise, it's spectacular.

Steven is an amazing violinist and listening to him play is such a treat. Violin music evokes strong emotion from the listener and conveying that emotion and the artist's intensity was the goal of the shoot.

When pre-conceptulizing how to shoot this, I thought it was important to use an elegant backdrop. I wanted a classic portrait with and without the instrument and an image with momentary reflection. I also wanted these images to have a masculine feel.

Well they say better late than never. I took these photographs of trick-or-treaters at my home on Halloween 2011.

These kids were kind enough to pose and the agreement was I would send them the picture by email. Unfortunately that never happened. It seems that someone made off with the pad of paper with the list of names and email addresses, never to be seen again.

I had hoped to meet up with some of the kids and their parents on Halloween 2012 but due to a family emergency I was out of town. So if you are reading this and you see your child, I hope you understand.

I was very sad to see the Breaking Bad series come to an end. It has to be my favorite TV series of all time along with The Good Wife. I thought I would pay tribute to the end by taking an image from a recent shoot and add some Breaking Bad elements. The tear out of his eye is to symbolize my sadness that there will never be another episode :).

I just purchased a fantastic book called Creative Portrait Photography by Natalie Dybisz, a.k.a. Miss Aniela.

Photography has changed tremendously over the years and now virtually everyone has a camera with them at all times and considers themselves a photographer. So what makes your images worth looking at? Unfortunately as good as Ansel Adams images are I am not sure he would even get an honorable mention in todays world.

How do you differentiate your work and what is your process for creative thinking?

I recommend this book to any photographer who is trying to make creative imagery. My favorite quote from the book is "All photography is not to be viewed as art".

Fair warning: You will be disappointed if you buy this hoping to get information about a camera or lenses, camera angles, digital versus film or how to use strobes or Photoshop - it is just about creative thinking.

You can never underestimate how important light is in making a pleasing image. And before you know it, the light is gone.
For me, more often than not the hardest part is finding you way back to the vehicle because if you wait for that light, you will be hiking back in the dark.

Sedona Arizona is a beautiful little town nestled amongst huge rock formations. I think I could live there if not for the hordes of tourists that descend there all summer long. Still, if you are willing to make the effort to get off the beaten path, you can find places that make you feel like you are far from civilization.

Isn't this a great building! And how about a corner office on the top floor. Construction on the Flatiron was finished 1902. I thought it was only fitting this image have a vintage feel.

When I happened by this building looking for a taxi I was carrying a little camera with no tripod and it was 8:00 PM and getting dark. I managed to hold the camera against the side of a light pole for the fairly long exposure and was extremely happy the image was in focus.

Compositing images had never really been of much interest of mine until I saw some really cool work done by one of my favorite photographers. Suddenly I became interested in learning about this. I needed to develop a concept. What can I say, when I met Angel, the model in the shoot, all I could think of was Vampire; sorry Angel. So there was the start of a concept anyway.

As life would have it, I was in North Carolina the following week for a family emergency at Duke University Hospital. After hours upon hours in the hospital, I took a lap and I discovered this great walkway leading from the chapel. Just what the doctor ordered for a Vampire scene. I shot Angel in the studio and made sure to light him in a way that would be believable in the final scene. I scaled the image from Duke to work with the shot of Angel and after a little Photoshop editing, the shot looks pretty believable. There are some serious flaws in the final image. Can you spot them?

This was to be a 4-part story; the vampire would be depicted in the hunt, conquest, feeding and the panicked escape. I have included the final image and the two photographs used to make the composite. Can you figure out which scene this was?

This was to be a 4-part story; the vampire would be depicted in the hunt, conquest, feeding and the panicked escape. I have included the final image and the two photographs used to make the composite. Can you figure out which scene this was?

What a great costume, celebrating Día De Los Muertos, better know as Day of The Dead in the US, a Mexican holiday. This is a popular Halloween costume in any part of the country with a large hispanic population. Día De Los Muertos focuses on gatherings of family and friends to come together, pray and remember friends and family members who have died.

This image and holiday were my inspiration for doing a photo study on a cemetery in Mexico (see projects).

My intent was to photograph some building from the beach with my large format camera on Coronado Island in California. As luck would have it this bird walked into the frame. With a slight movement of the camera the image suddenly became about the bird not the buildings. As with life, sometimes unexpected things happen, and sometimes there good.

This is the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. I wanted to photograph the bridge at sunrise (with no people on it) but I got there much to early. I tried to wait it out but the cold got the better of me so I went back to my hotel room. When I returned, the bridge was full of vendors and people.
Oh well, maybe next time.